Long-range talents

Votes

Natalia Marín (La casa de Julio Iglesias), Maider Fernández Iriarte (Amor siempre), Gemma Blasco (Jauría) and Tariq Porter (Cendra) talked about their short films programmed in different sections at FICX56. Four formal proposals very different in every way.

La casa de Julio Iglesias, presented in Locarno and Toronto film festivals, is the new short film by Natalia Marín. With an "essayistic character", this work aims to establish "a reflection on Spain from its identity." The author, who competed in FICX’s Official Section, said that "distributing the film has been harder than doing it", in reference to its presence in international festivals and to its own production, launched with "urgency" that "has always been above all" in her work, although she maintains that this is not at odds with the need for an economic return, "that we do not see." For this reason, she claimed economic support for projects with low budget, which often provide the cinema with "intangible" hits that "can not be quantified at the box office", like Lois Patiño’s Costa da Morte (2013).

On the other hand, Maider Fernández Iriarte shows in Amor siempre the contrasts of the universes of an old woman and her teenage granddaughter —her own grandmother and cousin—. From the story, originally shown in a video installation, she was interested in "playing with the relationship between screens in the course of a film." The story starts when the young girl begins to go out with boys and her grandmother, who sleeps in the same bed, is not aware of it. Thus, she proposes "an exploration of the way in which both have lived their love relationships." After presenting this short film at FICX, she continues preparing her first feature film Las letras de Jordi, which "does not need big production either."

Finally, Tariq Porter talked about Cendra, world premiered within FICX’s Official Section. It is an introspective work, starring his uncle Jordi Porter Huerre and set in an isolated house in the mountains. The filmmaker pointed out that he focused on "continuing the line of his previous work", and the production started "as a personal project" and did not have the contribution of the outstanding producer Paco Poch until the post-filming process. Like his colleagues, he valued that this new generation of creators "no longer waits for an economic guarantee" to carry out their work, because "sometimes there is no help", something he realised while "working with veteran filmmakers." He ended with one last common demand for "a circuit of short films screened before feature films."